Where is my juice? Carl

POV Justin

After leaving Atlanta we arrived at the quarry where the camp was with the rest of the main cast and many uninteresting background characters.

After Rick's emotional reunion with his wife Lori and son Carl, things calmed down a bit. Until Carl saw me. Justin? Carl asks a little confused as he watches me with wide eyes after hugging his father. "Is it really you?" He says walking slowly towards me.

"Nope." I stick my tongue out at Carl. "I'm just a stranger who stole his face." I say while waving my hands dismissively before Carl hugs me.

"I thought all my friends were dead." Carl sobs a little. "And now it turns out that my dad and my friend are still alive, I'm so happy." Carl keeps holding me while he cries when a small crowd gathers around us. This is so embarrassing. I give Carl a pat on the back.

"Glad to see you, too, friend." I say with a small smile. Was Carl such a crybaby?

"Carl, where do you know the kid from?" A voice interrupts the hug and Lori comes to my rescue.

"Mom, this is Justin, you know Justin my friend from school. I told you about him many times." Carl says raising his hands to imply his point. Lori just nods her head and crouches in front of me.

"Welcome to the group Justin, I'm glad Carl found one of his friends." Lori says with a motherly smile.

"Thank you." I say quickly looking away.

"So here you are." Andrea appears behind me and grabs my hand as she leads me through the camp to an RV. "I'll introduce you to some people."

"So this is the boy they found in the city." A new voice appears from inside the trailer when old Dale comes out of it with a rifle on his shoulder. "Nice to meet you, kid, do you want a chocolate?" Dale says pulling a chocolate bar out of his pocket. At this, my eyes light up and I nod my head furiously.

"A fan of sweets, huh? Just don't let the other kids see the chocolate, they're very hard to come by these days." Dale hands me the chocolate bar which I start eating right away. What a nice person.

"Thank you very much, Grandpa." I say laughing a little with my mouth full of chocolate. My joke seems to have affected Dale more than it should as he sways a bit.

"Are you okay Dale?" Andrea asks looking at Dale.

"Yes... yes, it's nothing." Dale laughs a little. "These bones grow old by the day, yet I still put up a fight." Dale says, ruffling my hair and then starting to stand guard on the roof of his trailer.

"Andrea, is this the boy you mentioned to me a few minutes ago?" Another voice makes its appearance behind me. "What a cute little thing. How old are you? 9?" In front of me now is Andrea's sister, Amy squeezing my cheeks. Leave me alone woman. Calm down Justin, you just have to be a normal boy, a normal boy. Don't kill them.

I give a forced smile. "I'm 12 years old, my name is Justin, are you Andrea's sister?" At this Amy nods her head.

"But you are so small and for some reason, I want to crush you in a hug, it must have been very scary for you to be in the city." Amy says before hugging me. Stop hugging me so much, these people make my nerves jumpy.

"Amy is enough." Andrea says separating her sister from me. "Come, Justin, we'll show you the camp." Andrea says grabbing my right hand.

"I always wanted a little brother Andrea, you are always the oldest, now it's my turn." Amy says crossing her arms, then grabbing my left hand and pulling me towards her. Before this Andrea also begins to pull. They're going to split me in half, these crazy people.

"Hey, what are you doing to Justin?" Carl Appears in front of us, quick Carl save me.

"We're not doing anything, just a little discussion between me and my sister, we want to show Justin around the camp." Andrea says quickly.

"Exactly, we just want to show Justin around the camp." Amy snorts a little.

"Great, I'm going with you too!" Carl yells. "Justin, come on, I'll show you around too." Carl says before handing me a change of clothes. "My mom told me to share my clothes with you since you didn't bring spare clothes." Carl only shrugs.

"Huh, I almost forgot." I say scratching my head and taking the clothes Carl offers me, I don't have any more clothes than what I'm wearing.

We spent several minutes walking around the camp and meeting some people, I didn't stop long enough to learn all the names, most of these people are just filler characters and will die soon. Carl even introduced me to Sofia who quickly joined our little tour of the camp.

Dusk comes and I am around a campfire with Andrea, Amy, Carl, and Sofia when Carol approaches me with a plate of food. "Hello, I'm Sofia's mom, my name is Carol." Carol says handing me a plate of food with a smile, then she sits around us as we start eating.

We all chatted for a bit until Merle walked over to the campfire causing Andrea to narrow her eyes.

"Demon child, you can sleep in my brother's tent, he is out hunting he won't mind." Merle comments as if nothing, before this Andrea stands up in front of Merle.

"No, Justin won't be sleeping in that tent, we don't even know what kind of stuff you Dixons have in them. Justin can trip over an arrow or a trap and get hurt." Andrea says crossing her arms.

"Justin can sleep in my tent, my parents gave me permission." Carl intervenes raising his hand.

"I think Justin would be more comfortable in the trailer with us." Amy says looking at Andrea. "Dale will allow it."

The discussion attracts the attention of people nearby. "What's all the fuss about?" Rick walks up to us along with his wife Lori.

"They are fighting over where the child will spend the night." Shane answers, where did Shane come from? Why does everyone come out of nowhere? I need to be more aware of my surroundings from now on.

"You can sleep in our tent if you want, it will be a bit tight, but we can manage." Rick mentions and gives Lori a hug.

"He'll be more comfortable with us, we have more than enough room for him in the RV." Andrew protests.

"Why don't you ask the boy and problem solved?" Shane chimes in raising an eyebrow in my direction. "Where do you want to stay boy?"

Sleeping on the floor in a tent or sleeping in a real bed. My decision is more than logical. My comfort before all things.

"I... think I'll sleep in the trailer." I say pinching my fingers together trying to look nervous. "I think it's more comfortable for everyone."

"I don't know why I bother setting up my brother's damn tent for you." Merle says as he starts to walk away complaining about big breasts and choking.

"Well, that solves all this unnecessary drama." Shane says walking away with a small smile on the curve of his lips.

Carl walks up to me quickly. "Justin, they are going to give you lice." He whispers Carl before his mother taps him on the head.

"Carl it's late, go to sleep." Lori says crossing her arms.

"But mom?" Carl retorts, however, the intense look Lori gives Carl makes him run towards his store. It reminds me of the look Aunt Lucille used to give me, it was scary back then.

"And you young man." Lori says looking at me now. "You should also go to sleep." Lori says as Amy grabs my hand and drags me into the trailer. I can only sigh in defeat, I'm already sleepy.

I enter the mobile home and begin to change my clothes, I put on the clothes that Carl lent me. I didn't care that Amy saw me changing my clothes. I'm a kid for god's sake.

Shortly after I lay down in a very comfortable bed, I fell asleep quickly, Amy wanted to talk, but I quickly ignored her in favor of my sleep.

I have a nice dream where I find myself conquering the world with an army of walkers before falling off a cliff. When I wake up I find myself on the floor of the trailer. Why am I on the ground?

"Oh shit Justin sorry." Andrea quickly apologizes and helps me to my feet. "Sometimes I move while I'm asleep, I made you fall out of bed, forgive me." I scratch my head a bit. As I watch Amy still asleep and Andrea in a bra. In another part of the trailer, Dale was sleeping on a couch.

"Nothing happens, sometimes I talk in my sleep." I say casually as the sun's rays illuminate the RV, I guess it's already morning.

A few minutes passed and someone knocks on the door of the mobile home, I open the door and see Carl and Sofia with smiles on their faces.

"Good morning Justin. Let's go explore the surroundings." Carl says. I have nothing to do, let's go with them.

"Okay, I'm going to get my things." I say slamming the door in Carl's face before going to get my backpack. Shortly after I walk out of the RV with a smile on my face and a knife hidden in my waistband.

"Justin, what happened to your parents?" Carl asks me innocently. What kind of question is that? If I hit Carl I will be seen as aggressive and they will hate me. Thanks to my self-control I managed to avoid hitting Carl.

"My mother was in the hospital when it all started and my father was in a military base in Japan. You don't have to be intelligent to know what happened to them." I answer by clenching my teeth a bit.

"Surely they are looking for you, like my dad, I thought I had lost him but he came back." Carl says with a smile before falling to the ground, tripping over my foot.

"Are you okay? You should better see where you step." I tell him as I give him a hand to pull him to his feet. He just nods and brushes off his clothes a bit before starting to walk around the camp again.

Several more minutes passed and we headed deeper into the forest, not so far from the camp. "Guys I think we should go back. What happens if a monster attacks us?" Sofia comments looking around while she holds a stuffed animal.

"You do not have to worry." I tell him waving my hands dismissively. "In case we run into a walker we'll use Carl as bait and run." I say before starting to laugh.

"Hey, that's not funny!" Carl yelps a little pouting and crossing his arms.

"Don't be so dramatic Carl, go and get me a juice, with a straw to drink please." I say hiding a smile.

"What?!... we are no longer in school, nobody here will call you highness Justin nor will they follow your strange orders." Carl stammers repressing some memories. At which I only laughed harder.

"I won't bring you the juice again. You'll have to get someone else to do that." Carl says crossing his arms.

"Why did they call you Highness Justin?" Sofia asks interested in the subject.

"You see, little Sofia, at my school I had a group of followers and Carl here was one of them, he was in charge of bringing me the juice in the cafeteria." I say pointing my finger at Carl, before Carl's face turns red with embarrassment.

"We weren't your followers, don't make things up Justin." Carl protests.

"Sure Carl, whatever makes you sleep at night." I said suppressing a giggle causing Sofia to start laughing at Carl.

If my memory serves me right, it should show up at any moment, although there is always a small margin for error.

A few minutes later we hear a noise near us, we all stop when we see some bushes start to move. Carl and Sofia were starting to freak out, however, out of the bushes a deer appears with an arrow sticking out of its stomach as it wobbles a bit towards us until it falls and stops moving.

"Wow." Carl exclaims in amazement after seeing a deer up close. I guess everything will be fine as long as no one shoots Carl.

"I want to go back to my mom." Sofia says still scared.

"Don't worry, I think he's dead." I say waving my hands in disdain getting a little closer to the deer. However, another noise is coming from the bushes.

"Could it be another deer?" Carl asks.

A staggering figure appears from the bush, a walker heading towards us. It's time to make myself indispensable to this group.

"Mommy!" Sofia yelled loudly.

"Dad, Shane, help!" Carl yells.

"Stand behind me." I tell Carl and Sofia who quickly pay attention to me and stand behind me, trembling a little.

From my waist I pull out a knife and walk a little closer to the walker, kicking him in the legs causing him to lose his balance as he swings towards me falling to the ground shortly after. I then plunged my knife into his eye socket. It was quite easy really.

Carl and Sofia look at me wide-eyed as they both have tears running down their faces, their breaths quickening before they both run to me and hug me. Then they start crying. Do I have a sign that says Hug me and cry? I just let out a small sigh. Might as well take advantage of this situation.

"There's no need to cry, your fabulous older brother will protect you." I say with a confident smile, which makes them just keep crying and hugging me tighter.

A whistle came from behind me and I see Daryl Dixon with his crossbow in hand. "I was about to shoot the walker before you got in the way of my shot. Nice moves, kid." Daryl says nodding his head and walking over to us. "Luckily the bastard didn't catch up with the deer, today we'll have a good meal thanks to you."

At that moment Rick arrives along with Shane and some people from the camp, they gather around us looking at the walker on the ground with a knife protruding from the eye bead.

Lori and Carol have already arrived and proceed to take their respective children who luckily have stopped crying.

Rick walks up to me and ruffles my hair while Shane just gives me a weird look. He sure suspects me, well let him suspect what he wants, so he'll be busy conspiring.

"Is that knife yours Justin?" Rick asks me to which I just nod my head.

"The walker appeared from the bushes and wanted to attack us, so I defended us." I said tilting my head slightly. "I did something wrong? Am I in trouble?" I ask pretending to be nervous.

Rick seems to have noticed my nervousness. "Don't worry Justin, you're not in trouble, I have to thank you for protecting the children." Rick says giving me a smile.

"Where did you learn to do that?" Shane interjects into our conversation, how rude.

"Shane not now." Rick puts a hand on Shane's shoulder. "Not now." At this Shane just snorts and walks away from the area shaking his head.

"What?" Is all I can say while scratching my head a little while appearing to be confused.

_______________________________________

Later that day, Carl brought me a juice with a drinking straw included.

My smirk was all Carl got from me before he turned around, his face red with embarrassment.

I start drinking my juice through a straw with a smile on my face.

My number of minions increases.